NC Rivalry

Over at the Books & Culture online magazine, Jason Byassee of the Christian Century – and a Duke PhD – lists some of the best lines from Will Blythe’s To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivalry (HarperCollins, 2006):

“The delight in the book is Blythe’s hand as a wordsmith. Interestingly (from this Dukie’s perspective) some of his greatest phrases come in begrudging praise of Duke players past and present. A crucial three-pointer fired in crunch time by Ichabod Crane lookalike Mike Dunleavy brought this delightful curse: ‘If the shot didn’t fall cleanly through the hoop and stab me in the heart like the sneakiest cheatin’ girlfriend.’ Bobby Hurley was a ‘New Jersey white kid’ who used to ‘blaze up and down the court like a Chevy Camaro about to throw a rod.’ And more recent Duke great J.J. Redick would weave his ‘ceaseless figure eights around the court, rubbing defenders off big men down low, darting for the cover of successive screens like a roach desperately seeking a hiding place’ . . .

“But Blythe wields a powerful pen praising the Tar Heels as well. Shooter Joe Forte could launch jumpshots that fell ‘into the net like groceries plopped into a bag by a pimply checkout boy.’ When all-time great Michael Jordan dunked the ball, he would ‘throw it down as if punishing it for insubordination.’ And when Sean May almost single-handedly defeated Illinois for the national title, he did so by ‘fouling out every big man in the state of Illinois, including ones not yet born.’ The gentle giant had magnificent hands: ‘Watching him shoot was akin to watching a bear dine on salmon with a knife and fork—such unexpected refinement captured one’s notice.’”